Switching system using momentary onhook signalling in answered trunk to detect abandoned call



Aug. 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN ANswRED TRUNK To DETECT ABANDONED CALL Filed April 27. 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 1 A TTORNEY A118- 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETA. 3,335,231

USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN RUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL SWITCHING SYSTEM ANSWERED T Filed April 27, 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 2 Aug- 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN SWITCHING ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONBD CALL Flled April 27. 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 5 Ilbv QLII'I Aug. 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWTCHING SYSTEM USING MMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALNG IN ANSWERED TRUNK 'IO DETECT ABANDONED CALL Filed April 27. 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 4 s F l Aug. 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOK SIGNALING IN ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL Filed April 27. 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 5 S En Aug. 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN CT ABNDONED CALL ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETE 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet Filed April 27,

we# EN Aug. 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWITCHNG SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY CIN-HOOK SIGNALING IN ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL Filed April 27, 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 'i Aug. 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING 1N ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet a Filed April 27,

Aug- 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

swITcHlNG SYSTEM USING MOMENTAHY oN-HOUK SIGNALING 1N ANswERED TRUNK To DETBCT ABANDONED CALL Flled April 27, 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 1* g F/G DELAYED ANSWER ANNOUNCEMENT (MACHINE) 9 Aug. 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet lo l O im Aug. 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING lN ANSWERED TRUNK T0 DETECT ABANDONEJD CALL Filed April 27, 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet l1 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231 SWITCHING .SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY GN-HOOK SIGNALING 1N ANSWEHED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 12 Aug. 8. 1967 Filed April 27.

Aug. 8, 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWTCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 13 Filed April 27 Aug. 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL USING MOMENTAR SWITCHING SYSTEM Y ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN ANswEREn TRUNK To DETECT ABANDONED CALL Filed April 27. 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 14 @ma me 3,335,231 HOOK SIGNALING IN CALL 19 Sheets-Sheet L;

P. R. GRAY ETAL ANswERED TRUNK To DETECT ABANDONED SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON- z SU 50% 20:28 E

Aug. 8. 1967 Filed April 27, 1964 Allg 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

.swVrcHlNG SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY oN-HooK SIGNALING 1N ANswBRED TRUNK To DETECT Filed Aprll 27, 1964 ABANDONED CALL 19 Sheets-Sheet 1c 3,335,231 HOOK SIGNALING IN CALL 19 Sheets-Sheet 1'# P. R. GRAY ETAL SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON- ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED Filed April 27. 1964 Aug. 8. 1967 Aug. 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SJITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY ON-HOOK SIGNALING IN ANSWEREID TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL 1964 19 Sheets-Sheet 1s Filed April 27,

Aug 8. 1967 P. R. GRAY ETAL 3,335,231

SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY (DN-HOOK SIGNALING IN ANSWERED TRUNK TO DETECT ABANDONED CALL Filed April 27. 1964 19 sheets-sheet w 33m e E 3,335,231 Patented Aug. 8, 1967 SWITCHING SYSTEM USING MOMENTARY N. HOOK SIGNALLING IN ANSWERED TRUNK 'IO DETECT ABANDONED CALL Preston R. Gray, Elmhurst, N.Y., and Paul L. Wedding,

Louisville, Ky., assignors to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Apr. 27, 1964, Ser. No. 362,672 20 Claims. (Cl. 179-27) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLSURE An automatic step-by-step telephone switching system for sequentially connecting calling trunks through trunk nders and attendant trunks to attendant positions. Trunk and position gates regulate call distribution. Reproduced machine announcement informs a connected attendant as to the callingy trunk area of origin. Trunk usage and abandoned calls are counted. Reproduced machine announcement notities a caller `of any delay in connecting to an attendant. Calling trunks previously answered by delay announcement machine are tested for abandonment of call before completing an attendant c-onnection.

This invention relates generally to switching systems and particularly to abandoned call detection for switching systems.

Detection of abandoned calls has been known in the art for some time and has generally taken the form of means for detecting whenever a calling signal or calling condition disappears before an answer condition occurs. On-ce a call, evidenced by a calling signal familiary known in the art as an off-hook condition, has been answered in yone form or another, the disappearance of the calling condition, such as a change from an off-hook condition to an on-hook condition of the calling end of a connection, is interpreted by the switching equipment as a normal release, and not an abandonment since an answer has already occurred.

At least one area of the switching art where the above latter-mentioned circumstance has not been considered as a normal release is in the well-known call distributor art. The latter will be recognized as the type of switching system particularly useful in department stores or airline reservation bureaus, or the like, where -calls incoming to the facility are routed to administrative people, such as order clerks or reservation clerks, whereby the calling party may place an order, secure information, reserve an airplane ticket, et cetera. It has been known for some time in such art, and in other switching systems also, that delay may occur before a number of concurrent calls can be completed to regular answering circuits. In such circumstances, prerecorded machine announcements (or live announcements in some cases) have been used as special answering circuits to inform calling parties of the delay. Such calling parties may thereupon hang up (disconnect or go onhook") or wait for a regular answer Tratic personnel have been interested in knowing not only how many calls are abandoned before any answer but also how many calls are abandoned after such an announcement but before a regular answer.

One of the objects of the present invention is to enable a count to be made not only of calls abandoned before any answer but also of calls abandoned after a special answer, such as a delayed answer announcement, but before a regular answer, such as to an attendant.

Where a call is first incoming to a call distributor, the latter recognizes an off-hook signal from the central otlice incoming on a circuit such as a trunk extending from the central office to the call distributor. Until the calling trunk is answered at the call distributor, the trunk provides toward the central oflice an on-hook signal indicating an unanswered condition. If the calling trunk is answered," either by a regular attendant position or by a machine or live announcement of a delay, the calling trunk changes the on-hook signal to an ott-hook signal back toward the central otiice, where such signal is recognized as a complete answer requiring a charge to be made. If the calling party chooses to remain off-hook thereafter, the call distributor will eventually completel the specially answered trunk to a regular attendant. If the calling party disconnects after the announcement, there may be a substantial delay before the central oice can send an on-hook disconnect signal to the call distributor, particularly where so-called joint control (calling and called) of release is involved. During such a delay, the call distributor may try to complete to a regular attendant what appears to be a legitimate calling trunk, only to have the distributor attendant find no one on the other end of the call. Such use of attendants is most ineiiicient, not to mention the fact that such circumsances are most annoying to attendants.

It is another object of the present invention to prevent completing calls to attendants where calling party disconnect has taken place.

The above objects are accomplished in the disclosed exemplary embodiment of the invention by momentarily changing the olf-hook signal of a specially answered (such as a machine announcement) trunk to an on-hook signal back toward the central oiice just prior to completing the calling trunk to an attendant. If the calling party has disconnected, the incoming trunk at the Call distributor will collapse preventing completion 0f the call; whereas, if the calling party has not disconnected, the call distributor will complete the call. The aforementioned collapse of the trunk circuit will cause a count to be made of a call abandoned after a delayed answer announcement and will preclude the ineiticient and annoying connection of the trunk to an attendant,

In switching systems involving calling party control only, a disconnect (going on-hook) by a calling party after a delayed answer announcement will ordinarily cause the calling condition (olf-hook signal) to be removed very quickly at the incoming end of the call distributor. However, such central oices must always determine whether a calling party on-hook signal is legitimate or merely a switch-hook-fumbling situation. This necessitates a timed release before the central oice can send an on-hook signal to the call distributor. This sort of timed release is merely a matter of milliseconds, being controlled generally by the release time of slow-release relays.

On the other hand, in switching systems involving joint control (calling and called party control), the central oflice circuitry will maintain an off-hook signal toward a call distributor incoming trunk which has been answered even though the calling party may have disconnected. However, the calling party disconnect will start a fairly long timing interval (perhaps 15 to 30 seconds), at the end of which time the central office will send the call distributor an on-hook signal.

While not necessarily limited thereto, the present invention is especially adapted for use in the latter-mentioned situation to prevent the connection to a call distributor attendant of a calling trunk during that relatively long central oftice time-out period where the calling party has actually disconnected but where the central office is maintaining an off-hook signal to the answere trunk at the call distributor. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention is also useful in other joint control systems having no calling party 

1. IN AN AUTOMATIC SWITCHING SYSTEM WHEREIN A CALLING CONDITION AT THE CALLING END OF A TRUNK IS EFFECTIVE TO CAUSE SAID TRUNK TO BE REGULARLY ANSWERED BY CONNECTING THE ANSWERING END THEREOF TO AN AVAILABLE ATTENDANT POSITION, WHEREIN A PRESCRIBED AMOUNT OF DELAY IN EFFECTIVE AN ATTENDANT CONNECTION CAUSES A CALLING TRUNK TO BE SPECIALLY ANSWERED BY TEMPORARILY CONNECTING THE ANSWERING END THEREOF TO A DELAYED ANSWER ANNOUNCEMENT CIRCUIT, AND WHEREIN THE ANSWERING END OF A SPECIALLY ANSWERED CALLING TRUNK IS SUBSEQUENTLY CONNECTABLE TO AN AVAILABLE ATTENDANT POSITION: (A) MEANS IN SAID TRUNK FOR INDICATING WHEATHER OR NOT SAID TRUNK IS IN A CALLING CONDITION AND WHEATHER OR NOT A SAID CALLING TRUNK HAS BEEN SPECIALLY ANSWERED; (B) SIGNALING MEANS IN SAID TRUNK SELECTIVELY CONTROLLABLE BY SAID INDICATING MEANS (1) TO APPLY AN ON-HOOK SIGNAL TO THE CALLING END OF A SAID UNANSWERED CALLING TRUNK AND (2) TO APPLY AN OFF-HOOK SIGNAL TO THE CALLING END OF A SAID SPECIALLY ANSWERED CALLING TRUNK; (C) MEANS FOR SIGNIFYING AVAILABILITY AND UNAVAILABILITY OF AN ATTENDANT POSITION; AND, 